AAP Quarterly: Psychosynthesis and Creativity

Creativity and Psychosynthesis

with Guest Editor Peter Stewart

“The seed germinates in the night”. Joseph Conrad, novelist

Creativity and Psychosynthesis have always been closely linked. The founder of psychosynthesis Roberto Assagioli often talked about the value of creative work, “whether artistic, scientific or technical,” in engaging the higher Self, the Self that is the authentic essence of our inner being and that gives us purpose and meaning. 

Creativity can provide valuable channels to connect with one’s inner purpose and meaning, and can also be a powerful tool to harness the strength of individual self-synthesis in transforming the world we live in.

Assagioli was fascinated by creativity and the value of creative work throughout his life. In The Act of Will, he compared creativity to channelling the torrential waters of a river to serve a power station. He saw that creative action can be used to redirect psychological drives to higher purposes. Assagioli also wrote about the process of creativity, which he observed often required periods of unconscious incubation before flowering.

The need for creative engagement has arguably never been greater given the tectonic changes and challenges faced by society in recent years.

Please share ways in which you have used creativity in your work in Psychosynthesis to help your clients, whether as a coach, therapist or in personal development. How has Psychosynthesis helped you in your own creative work, and to help express your connection to your higher Self? How can creativity foster communication between all the parts of the self and its sub-personalities?

We also welcome contributions from those involved in creative work, and who see ways that creativity can be used to advance psychosynthesis in the 21st century. How can creativity be used with psychosynthesis to catalyse individual, organisational and societal transitions?

Please send submissions as soon as they are ready so we can get started reading and editing before the deadline. Thank you so much!

Send your articles, exercises, poems, photography, and art to attn: newsletter@aap-psychosynthesis.org  

 The Psychosynthesis Quarterly accepts announcements, ideas, reviews of books and events, articles, poetry, art, exercises, photos, and letters. Tell us what has helped your life and work, what can help others, and examples of psychosynthesis theory in action. We welcome articles from all who study, teach, coach, counsel, and play with psychosynthesis.

We hope our suggestion of from 250 to 1500 words may serve as a guideline that helps your writing. We prefer that you use the APA style guide when possible, for things like punctuation and references.  Articles should be submitted in word.doc format with all images sent as jpegs or pngs attachments. Please also send a brief bio in word.doc format and a recent photo of yourself as jpegs or png attachments.

Announcements, book reviews, and upcoming events are also welcome,  with a request that non-members who wish to submit advertising make a donation to AAP.

Peter trained as a psychosynthesis coach on the PGCPLC program run by Middlesex University and the Institute of Psychosynthesis. He worked for more than 30 years as a journalist, consultant and analyst, mainly in the field of energy, before making the transition to becoming a creativity coach and part-time potter. He runs several websites dedicated to his interests in poetry, travel, the energy transition and creativity. You can connect with Peter through his website https://coachcreates.com which has links to his various social media or by email to peter@coachcreates.com. Peter also runs the website https://psychosynthesis.community which he hopes will become a focal point for discussion about the contemporary relevance of psychosynthesis.